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Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

zdnet.com

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Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#91

Post by cm2187 »

794CD01 wrote: post #66
hackuser wrote: post #15

I want devices that I, the owner, control, whether I'm a small business or enterprise or individual. This is important for many reasons, from security to freedom-to-tinker to using the device I own in the way I want. It was once an accepted standard in IT. Now, can anyone name a current handheld or desktop system that provides end-user control? If you don't think security, including privacy, is important, consider wh…

Most things that were "once an accepted standard in IT" are horribly insecure. The end user wanting a system he/she controls is very much one of them. Microsoft taking away control from users, especially when it came to forcing them to take updates, is probably the biggest change they could possibly have made to improve the overall security of the internet.

Rather to force their users to see their ads and push their apps down their throat. Security? Really?

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#92

Post by daveguy »

fweespee_ch wrote: post #19
rchowe wrote: post #17

The reasoning behind this made a lot more sense to me once I started to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. There can't have been that many end users who had Windows 10 Pro and went into group policy to turn off the store. So you're looking at small businesses who were using PCs with Win10 Pro on them (likely that came with the PC) that were turning off access to the store but can't any more. The IT admins for the…

> Microsoft has retroactively removed the ability of companies to turn off access to the Windows Store in its Windows 10 Pro version. Yes but by "upsell" you mean "extort by way of feature removal after the product was purchased".

Hey, at least they haven't started encrypting hard drives as an upgrade incentive.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#93

Post by mynameisvlad »

unprepare wrote: post #82
794CD01 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most things that were "once an accepted standard in IT" are horribly insecure. The end user wanting a system he/she controls is very much one of them. Microsoft taking away control from users, especially when it came to forcing them to take updates, is probably the biggest change they could possibly have made to improve the overall security of the internet.

are you under the impression that automatic security updates is what people dislike about windows 10? Its mostly the: telemetry openended ToS poor upgrade/reinstall behavior resulting in lost licenses overly complicated licensing structure (with articles like this showing the professional license feature set degrading over time) forced integration of unrelated products (cortana, bing) integration of advertising into…

Full disclosure: I work at Microsoft but outside of Windows.

> poor upgrade/reinstall behavior resulting in lost licenses

I have never experienced this. If you bought Windows 10 straight up (or your computer came with one) then you have a product key you can use, just like before. If you upgraded from 7/8 or are in the Insider Program, then you get a digital entitlement to your Microsoft account which gets restored automatically when you next sign on. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/activation-in-...

> overly complicated licensing structure

There are two editions for consumers: Home, and Pro. With the differentiator being fairly clear from the name alone (home is for home users, pro gives you things you aren't going to ever use at home but might at work, like AD join). There are other editions like Enterprise and Education, but an end user will never even see them.

> forced integration of unrelated products

Cortana is a part of Windows. It started as a Windows Phone feature, and got brought over to desktop. There's nothing unrelated about it. Bing is integrated to Cortana because that's the backend powering it. It's like how Ok Google uses Google on Android. Using a third party provider would not give nearly the amount of insight it currently has, since the two teams can work together to improve results and the overall experience.

> integration of advertising into the OS (lockscreen and wallpapers)

Spotlight has shown one ad that I am aware of (Tomb Raider). Otherwise, it gives you curated images rotated every so often. Your wallpaper does not change, that is not a feature of Spotlight. It's also completely disableable; you just set your own image.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#94

Post by mikestew »

Animats wrote: post #51
levemi wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is a huge organization with tens of thousands of employees. We have no idea what was communicated between this commenter and the sales person. At some point you have to kind of step back and realize that you're responsible for your outcomes and not blame everything bad that happens to you on others. Searching Google with "startup microsoft" or "startup pricing microsoft" would have been enough effort to fig…

No. That's not how sales organizations for competent companies work. IBM, in the mainframe era, was very good at this. It was IBM policy that if you called anyone within IBM sales with a problem, it was the IBM employee's job to get you to the right people. All IBM salespeople had a little printed pocket book of phone numbers within IBM, a directory of contacts for various types of problems.

Man, I can't upvote this enough. Say what you will about the IBM of old or new, when you called you didn't have to put up with this runaround of putting the onus on the potential customer. "Hi, IBM, I'd like to give you money." "Just a moment, sir, and the next person you speak with will be the one that can help you."

"Hi, Microsoft, I'd like to give you money but fuck me if I can figure out which SKU or how much." "You did it wrong, sir. You should have called this other number. Or you should have Googled it. But the last thing you should have done is called me, have a nice day. "

I ran into this almost ten years ago trying to price the various SKUs we needed for Visual Studio. It was appallingly ridiculous how much time I spent on that, in contrast to just going to a web page, comparing features, click a few radio buttons, click "Buy", sorted. It was the last place I've worked since that I've had to beg Microsoft to take my money. Now they just plain don't get my money.

Signed, A very disappointed ex-MSFT employee and ex-shareholder

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#95

Post by rchowe »

fweespee_ch wrote: post #19
rchowe wrote: post #17

The reasoning behind this made a lot more sense to me once I started to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. There can't have been that many end users who had Windows 10 Pro and went into group policy to turn off the store. So you're looking at small businesses who were using PCs with Win10 Pro on them (likely that came with the PC) that were turning off access to the store but can't any more. The IT admins for the…

> Microsoft has retroactively removed the ability of companies to turn off access to the Windows Store in its Windows 10 Pro version. Yes but by "upsell" you mean "extort by way of feature removal after the product was purchased".

I suspect that the removal is actually an artifact of them saying that later versions of Windows will be incremental updates to Windows 10. Normally they would just wait until Windows 11 to make the change, but since they can't do that any more, they just roll it out in an update.

Yeah it was a bait-and-switch for small businesses.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#96

Post by cm2187 »

unprepare wrote: post #82
794CD01 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most things that were "once an accepted standard in IT" are horribly insecure. The end user wanting a system he/she controls is very much one of them. Microsoft taking away control from users, especially when it came to forcing them to take updates, is probably the biggest change they could possibly have made to improve the overall security of the internet.

are you under the impression that automatic security updates is what people dislike about windows 10? Its mostly the: telemetry openended ToS poor upgrade/reinstall behavior resulting in lost licenses overly complicated licensing structure (with articles like this showing the professional license feature set degrading over time) forced integration of unrelated products (cortana, bing) integration of advertising into…

Frequent forced reboots

Windows overriding user settings

Playing whack-a-mole with the privacy settings

Bloated with unwanted softwares

Two control panels

And most important: loss of trust in Microsoft. This is the one thing that will be hard for them to reverse.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#97

Post by rchowe »

basch wrote: post #37
rchowe wrote: post #17

The reasoning behind this made a lot more sense to me once I started to do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. There can't have been that many end users who had Windows 10 Pro and went into group policy to turn off the store. So you're looking at small businesses who were using PCs with Win10 Pro on them (likely that came with the PC) that were turning off access to the store but can't any more. The IT admins for the…

Your small business is already an O365 E3/E5 customer, and Microsoft is tricking your users into signing up for Microsoft accounts ontop of O365 accounts (which creates all sorts of unnecessary sign in complications, like OFTEN having to choose WORK over Personal TWICE in a row.) Now you have all sorts of training issues and confusion when peoples onenote notes end up in their Microsoft account and not their O365 acc…

I've been working on a web app that integrates with Office 365 using OpenID Connect. If someone is signed into their Microsoft account instead of their corporate account, the sign-in process just gives a generic error page with light-grey text explaining the error at the bottom of the page.

I know some of your pain :)

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#98

Post by tdkl »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #93
unprepare wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are you under the impression that automatic security updates is what people dislike about windows 10? Its mostly the: telemetry openended ToS poor upgrade/reinstall behavior resulting in lost licenses overly complicated licensing structure (with articles like this showing the professional license feature set degrading over time) forced integration of unrelated products (cortana, bing) integration of advertising into…

Full disclosure: I work at Microsoft but outside of Windows. > poor upgrade/reinstall behavior resulting in lost licenses I have never experienced this. If you bought Windows 10 straight up (or your computer came with one) then you have a product key you can use, just like before. If you upgraded from 7/8 or are in the Insider Program, then you get a digital entitlement to your Microsoft account which gets restored a…

> It's also completely disableable

How about being opt-in?

Can we please just give you money and have a edition of Windows 10 LTSB for consumers where you don't have to wrestle with all this crap?

Also will this "surprise motherfucker" style of updates continue when the free update period runs out in July 2016 and MS starts charging money? Because if it won't, get prepared for some heavy legal action.

Re: Microsoft no longer allows admins to block Windows Store access in Win10 Pro

#100

Post by nradov »

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

If Microsoft wants SMBs to use Enterprise then make the Enterprise edition more easily available to SMBs, don't try to force them to move to it by making petty little changes to make their life more difficult. I can go on the Google Apps website right now and buy myself seats with a few clicks and a few minutes. If I want to buy Windows Enterprise licenses it will take weeks, cost an unclear amount (at the onset), an…

The ironic thing is that when Microsoft launched Windows NT they successfully disrupted Novell's Netware business largely by just being easier to purchase. Back then Netware was a superior product in most ways, but the only way to get it was to buy through an authorized local reseller. Dealing with those shops was a huge hassle and expense. Whereas anyone with a credit card could call up a catalog retailer and order as many different NT licenses as they wanted.
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